Saturday, 30 March 2013

One of the most consistently brilliant producers to regularly pepper the Hedmuk inbox with fresh dubs is Sepia. His music skips ably across a whole range of sounds and styles - from swung garage to prim UK funky to ruff jungle to straight sub-weight steppers - whilst simultaneously refusing to be strictly defined by any of them. But this sense of nostalgic retrospect goes no further than his moniker, as the music (and the title of this particular beat) is nothing but forward-facing; again we have this sense of hybridity and, with it, excitement: if this is the indefinable 'something' that's been brewing in the UK's underground, then it's with Sepia - all puns intended - that we find the bubbles.

Opening up with the sort of textures and delicate melody that Sigur Rós might manage to carve from their Icelandic landscape, when the drums kick in the listener is split between a lulled head-nod and all out two-stepping: an amazing level of rhythmic complexity, delivered with potent smoothness, is arguably the defining characteristic of a Sepia tune. And that's before the bent basslines, unrelenting at the second drop, have gripped your ear and pulled it all the way through the track. In all honesty, it's difficult to capture the full feel in writing as there is something entirely unwritten - indefinable - which brings and holds each element of the tune together; so for now it's probably wisest to let the music do its talking.

Sunday, 24 March 2013

There's a certain casual swagger to everything Keysound, and it's that sense that's caught up in the title of their debut compilation 'This Is How We Roll': a title that all-at-once nods to old-school jungle rollers, a previous release on the label from garage legends Zed Bias and Steve Gurley, and, perhaps most strongly in this instance, to the sense of a crew (and with this, by no small stretch, grime and the importance of the sound's founder crews such as Meridian, Ruff Sqwad, Slew Dem and, by no coincidence we might suggest, Roll Deep). And despite this ease of reference, the title is purposefully obfuscating; in recent discussions we've had with label co-owner Blackdown and intrigued attendees to the sound pushed here, there has always been an emphasis on a much wider approach to the sound: this is just music, let's just leave it at that, and "let's just roll".

In a similar way to the original 'Grime' compilations on Rephlex, this compilation might be taken as a moment of pause to collect what we've got so far and to - very loosely - define where things are with the sound; and it's that uncollected hybridity (a word which has appeared on plenty of occasions during our conversations with some of this sound's proponents) of styles that makes the whole move, and this compilation, so attractive. Opening up with a triple-header collaboration from Dusk & Blackdown Rinse regulars Visionist, Beneath and Wen, the tone is set to dark and drum-led as Beneath's characteristic kicks drive through the eery synths and grimey snips that can be found littered throughout both Visionist and Wen's beats. Each of these three appear once more as solo artists on the CD, with Beneath's gully take on tightly-syncopated UK funky rhythms, Visionist offering what it might sound like if Horsepower Productions made grime, and Wen delivering an enormous 130 VIP of his already large 'Commotion'.

Throughout there is a sense of musical pedigree, and pride in it: all over the CD are flecks and inflections of grime, UK funky, garage, jungle and dubstep but nowhere is there anything that might be straightly defined as any of these things individually: Epoch's 'The Steppenwolf' has been receiving regular rotation on the Keysound Rinse show, and rightly so as it is pure mood, taking the listener through a complete route of skunk-smoke head-nods; Double Helix' 'LDN VIP' rolls along all warm basslines and the tightest drums around, and Dusk + Blackdown's own offering - in the form of the the Android Heartbreak Drumz Remix of 'Lonely Moon' - achieves a similarly tense hybridity in its drum patterns as it skips in the mid-distance between garage and UK funky beats; Gremino and Samrai, meanwhile, both stretch as much pace out of the standardised 130 tempo, with jumpy bashment- and dancehall-influenced funky that would have most crossover MCs passing the mic back.

Showcased too is the label's fondness for experimentation with sound, as Rabit strips everything back to the coldest synths since Wiley was pressing white labels, and Mumdance & Logos include a tune literally 'In Reverse', and end up with a driving pulse that would have a dancefloor in fits. The compilation is not all dark drones and tripped-up beats, however, as Fresh Paul delivers a purple synth workout and E.m.m.a. and Moleskin close out the affair with the sunrise that follows the murky late-night walk through, as the catalogue number would have it, a figurative LDN.

Thursday, 21 March 2013

Uploaded simply as a .zip folder entitled 'Gift', what Gantz delivered this evening was just that: among his most sought-after dubs, 'Tesseract' has been receiving regular spins from the likes of Joe Nice and BunZer0. A real builder, the beat grows from its light percussive beginnings, taking on sharp synths, eery atmospherics, clipped vocals and thicker, bolder percussion strokes until the tightly-controlled cacophony falls away with a sudden close.

No strangers to hosting a good party, previous Mono Audio events have involved such Hedmuk favourites as Etch, Kryptic Minds, Loefah, Chunky and Wen, and this week they deliver again with a very tight lineup all for the price of exactly zero pounds. Hosted at Fire Club in Vauxhall, London, the night promises a mix of flavours with fast-riser Paleman and School Records representative Klose One providing beats from lower down the tempo, and Mista Men bridging the tempo gap - with a blend of garage and bassline - to the grimier offerings of the latest Butterz signing, Flava D, and Rinse academy talent Pedro 123. Early arrivers, who'll guarantee their free entry, will be warmed up by the select Mono residents - a taster of whom can be found below in C-Side's promo mix for the event. Scroll down for more details on the event, or head over here to the Facebook event page.

Sunday, 17 March 2013

No stranger to remix treatment, some of our favourites of which are available for free download here and here, MIK today unleashes a whole new selection of re-rubs via his Bandcamp site. Featuring a full range of styles - from zoners reminiscent of Fable's recent remixes for us, to percussion-driven numbers and greazy synth-led approaches - the EP showcases not only a fine selection of new production talents, but also the versatility of the MC's flow patterns.

Donny Don Remix EP by M.I.K
With this in mind, we thought it pertinent to suggest, after MIK got in contact about the release, that we give out the acapella as a free download for a limited period to encourage more producers to take on the challenge of combining their sounds and styles with an MC who lends himself to such a breadth of approaches; and he agreed, so here it is:

And anyone who does finish a tune which incorporates the vocal is, of course, encouraged to send it our way, to the hedmuk@gmail.com.

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Reflecting a period in which dubstep and grime were still just undefined - or perhaps even over-defined, carrying with them a multiplicity of different, and differently inadequate, names - offshoots of a similarly difficult dark strain of UK garage, Underclass is emblematic of that raw, somehow-cohesive multiplicity that had an increasing number of disenchanted and disillusioned garage heads entranced as the UK crept into the noughties. Similarly to the way in which the likes of Threnody, Etch, Wen, Beneath, Visionist all contain, in their music, nods towards the rich musical history they have - often simply by making music where they do - inherited, Underclass' beats are aware of their influences and rejoice in twisting them into a new, informed figure. But what is striking about tunes like 'Ecko', though, is the intensity of their sparsity; and while this may sound paradoxical, it's a concept well-illustrated and illuminated below as we receive an insight, as unlikely as it might be, into the influence of John Cage and of Futurist theorists on Underclass' music. The result is a sound which is very raw and very engaging.

Hedmuk: Your tunes tend to share a raw, stripped-back aesthetic: is this something you feel you aim for consciously, or does it seem to come naturally?

Underclass: I do separate the textures and the rhythms consciously. The beats and bass are about vibes, movement and flex whilst the textures are more precise and all about depth. If you listen to my beats the instruments might be stripped back, but that is just to leave space for the incidental sounds in the background. I’ve always been interested in the ambience encasing sounds, natural reverb on mechanical sounds like a helicopter or traffic, so leaving other areas sparse to let ambience ring out is important.

H: What was it that first got you involved with producing and making beats?

U: I got into making beats through DJing. I have a decent collection of early grime and dubstep and have been mixing it for a long time now. Really I started making beats mainly because my old vinyls had more crackle than bass as I’d rinsed them, so I wanted to make something with that aesthetic but for this decade. I wanted music that was raw, dark, cold but also paid attention to detail. 10 years ago coming out with something made on a Playstation was acceptable and new, but whilst the melodies and beats are still sick the depth isn’t there in terms of texture.

H: It's clear that you draw a significant influence from early grime and dubstep sounds, but do you find yourself trying to step away from your influences, to an extent, in order to set your music within a new, fresh framework? Where else do you tend to draw influence from, is it mostly music or are there other things that you find to be inspiring?

U: Early grime and dubstep are just what I grew up with so those sounds and that aesthetic is just ingrained in me. I have some older friends who were junglists and it is the same with them, 'Amens' are part of their psyche. Alongside grime I listen to a lot of electroacoustic music and I've listened to that since before I locked onto grime. I felt grime fitted into that, especially early on it was abstract and vanguard in the same way Jonathan Harvey, Jonty Harrison, Pierre Schaeffer etc. are. I use a lot of those composers as references for sounds and textures, while my rhythms & bass come from grime. I don’t look to step away from or step towards my influences, I just see what comes. I never think ‘I want this track to sound like DJ Oddz/Luigi Russolo/Trevor Wishart’, I just write.

I’m not interested in going back and trying to recreate anything that isn’t already ingrained within me. I don’t want to go back further and make a rave, garage or jungle pastiche because that was then. I also don’t want to make a record that sounds like 'eski' or early grime, but these sounds and rhythms are just what are in my head and what my brain is wired to so they probably come out. If I ever write a track with an Amen or an obvious 2-step beat then I have sold out because I would deliberately be trying to be something I am not. I didn’t experience garage or jungle first hand and I don’t have a complex about that and feel the need to make neo-garage/jungle through guilt, so I just write what comes.

As for taking influence from other places, like I mentioned probably the biggest thing is how sound behaves in space and just using my ears at different times in different places and thinking ‘how do I make a police siren sound like it is travelling towards me at 120mph through a city at 3am, and how can I incorporate that in a tune’. Probably the single biggest influences on how I listen to sound comes from the Futurists and their writing, and also John Cage and his lectures. Reading those teaches you to really listen to everything and without the Futurists we probably wouldn’t treat the sounds of industry as music. It is almost 100 years ago now but without them I don’t think we would be open to sounds and textures in electronic music today.

H: Like many of the producers within this loose grouping which we've mentioned previously, you're taking certain core aspects of styles such as dubstep and grime and pulling them back to a slower 130 tempo: what was your initial thinking behind this, and how important is the extra space that doing this can give?

U: Well, I don’t write dubstep and apart from a few tracks and producers I’m not interested in it particularly these days. A lot of the grime I have on vinyl is slower than 140 too and the beats I was making weren’t halfstep so they didn’t need the extra tempo to drive them. 130 leaves enough space for the background sounds and textures and it is a bit of a coincidence that some other producers seem to be working at that tempo too. I thought when people talked about 130 they were talking about Swamp81 or Night Slugs and although I like some records from those labels it is a completely different sound, although the framework might be similar. It is the difference between standing in front of a speaker in a rave or listening to the beats from the back of the room. One is direct and the other has space. I think the same difference was present in grime vs. dubstep 10 years ago. I suppose the only thing linking a lot of this loose grouping is the use of grime aesthetic with early dubstep’s sense of space. Obviously a lot of new dubstep has moved from the back of the room to in front of the speaker and lost that space whilst other stuff is obsessed with the space and has lost the vibes.

H: You've recently been picked up by Dusk & Blackdown, receiving regular airplay on their Rinse show: how does it feel to be getting that level of recognition and exposure?

U: I’m shocked that I have been picked up so quickly by some big names but I had spent a while working on tracks and I knew at the end of last year that I had reached the right level to send beats out. Initially Threnody played a few tracks and this got me a lot of attention very quickly. Blackdown messaged me to say he had heard my beats on Threnody’s show and asked if I could send some. I locked onto his show the next week and him & Dusk were playing them. Brackles and J:Kenzo have played them out too, which surprised me a bit, but I’m honored they like them and feel they work in their sets. If anyone plays my music then it means a lot and the fact that people I’m playing, like Filter Dread, Epoch and Rabit are playing me means more to me than if someone told me Skrillex had just dropped my track.

Hearing Blackdown & Dusk drop them was special as Keysound is on fire at the moment and that Rinse show is a monthly ritual for me. It’s good for me to get support from DJs because I’m not that up for the hype game of Facebook pages or whatever. I have a Twitter to communicate and a Soundcloud to put out some tunes, but I’d prefer to be judged by my beats than how many followers I have. DJs are the important people for repping my beats and getting them out to the wider public.

H: How did you go about putting together the mix you've done for us?

U: I started off by pulling out all my vinyl and thinking what I could put in but in the end the only track that did was an old SLT Mob one. I think it is far more important to rep what is now rather than what I like. I can listen to my vinyl for fun at any time. I did consider putting in a little live re-edit of Loefah’s 'Mud' that I do with 2 vinyls, but I just thought if I start messing around with vinyls and tunes everyone knows already it is too much of a vanity thing. Everyone knows and loves 'Mud' so it was too easy playing that.

After that I just sat down and mixed. A few producers have sent me dubs that I’m really feeling and I feel work with my tracks so I just hunched over the decks and treated it like any mix I do. Nothing was planned I just went with the mood.

H: Finally, are there any forthcomings or anything else in the pipeline that you'd like to put the word out on?

U: Nothing is set in stone at the moment. I have given out a track with you and another one out for free with Below The Line, and then I'll be seeing which labels are interested. I’ve been chatting to a few and now just need to find the right home. I may just stick out a white label 12” to get a couple of tracks out there. Really it is only a couple of months since I came out the dark so I’d like to get a few gigs to hear my beats on a system within the space of a rave whilst continuing to develop new material too.

Sunday, 10 March 2013

Despite now having established themselves a staple on the Manchester club circuit, the guys at Project 13 have never been about finding a laurel to rest on and continue to dedicate themselves to trying new things - and, not unlike ourselves here at Hedmuk, always to retain the music as the centrepiece. Their latest venture comes with a little more mystery then usual, though, as they announce the first of a run of parties held in a warehouse space in Manchester, featuring as-yet-unannounced headliners representing Deep Medi, Hypercolour and Hyperdub respectively; and with all this in mind we thought it best to hit them up for a little more information on what to expect from their upcoming Secret Sessions parties, as well as to get some prize together for a big giveaway:

Hedmuk: What was the thinking behind moving P13 out of a more regular club environment, as it were, and into the more neutral warehouse setting?Jacob P13: It’s a project we’ve been contemplating for a while now, the resources have been there and we felt now was the perfect time to execute. Our nights at Joshua Brooks have all been smashes but, as great as the venue is, our music policy and following doesn’t tend to gel as well as there as we’d like.

Ideally, we’d like a big dark room, a quality sound system and quality artists - which is what we have at the Secret Sessions.

H: Have you got more of this type of event planned for the future, and will you still be running the more regular nights at Joshua Brooks too?Matt P13: We plan on doing a short string of events like this in the future, although whether that’ll be at the same venue or not, we don’t yet know. I suppose it comes down entirely to how well the first one goes down, and if it captures the interest of our following as well as we hope it will. Running an event like this has so many more risks that your standard club event. If we do continue these warehouse-type parties they’ll be more spaced out than our club nights, and will crop up just as randomly as our club-based events. We will also be continuing at Joshua Brooks, although our next event won’t be until mid-May, for our 2nd birthday.

H: In terms of the music you're representing, do you feel like your new setting in the warehouse gives you more freedom when putting together a lineup as the venue does less to distract from the music on show?J: Yeah fully, we can do our own thing in terms of orchestrating the fundamentals of the event - from the music policy, the sound, the staffing, the door policy and everything else in between - to make it a Project 13 party at its realist and finest.

It’s events like these that intrigued me the most about this scene, going to free parties over the country where you had no idea what to expect besides good music, good sound and good vibes. We couldn’t be happier with what we have in store for the event.

H: Is keeping the capacity low, at 150, something you've thought a lot about too?

M: Semi. It’s in our best interests as well as the audience’s that we keep the numbers down for safety purposes. However, having 150 people in a large industrial space keeps the intimacy there and gives people their own space to do as they please. When we put on nights in clubs, we put a lot of effort into filling the gaff. It can be going off on a next level, however if you’ve not got space to breathe let alone move to the music, it can seriously damage the vibe on a whole. I personally feel that having space to dance, mingle with like-minded people, or just lurk on your own in a dark corner is what people will take back from the night, and makes a good night just that.

H: What else have you got lined up for Project 13 over the coming year?J: Event-wise we have the Secret Sessions party and the 2nd birthday at Joshua Brooks in May. Our main focus at the moment is planning the next series of live streams which will be dropping in Spring. We’re also orchestrating the first release for the label that we are hoping to have out by the start of next year on vinyl.

[P13 residents] Leadbelly and Acre have just released a white label which has gone down great; Leadbelly and T-Man have a video dropping shortly which is looking big; Acre has a massive release out soon, so watch out for that; and there will be a few of our artist at Outlook this year too.

Which of the Project 13 residents playing on the night last year put out a vinyl release on Innamind Recordings?
The competition will close on the 27th of March, at which point a winner will be chosen at random by an independent third party and notified by email - as well as being announced via the Hedmuk Facebook and Twitter pages.

Saturday, 2 March 2013

Further expressing his techno lean with this latest offering on Kryptic Minds' Osiris Music UK, 'Press On' and 'Tantra' see Killawatt expressing a newly-grounded confidence in his natural production abilities; and whist describing something as "experimental" is an approach more commonly used for delivering a poorly-disguised insult, this is a territory into which Killawatt has dipped carefully and, arguably resultantly, successfully on this release.

The lead track is, as its introduction suggests, a study in rhythm and percussion as the tune is lead on by a whirling range of beats and blips: the distinctive tick of each percussive sound being played off against one another to create an intricate, beats-based melody. And yet, despite the apparent absence of a traditional catching melody, there is a hook there, and one which draws subtle attention to Killawatt's ever-developing accomplishment when it comes to arrangement. The flip, 'Tantra', re-balances the record with a more familiar skulking step to it and a sub-line that nods to the jungle influence that is never far from his work and will always do the damage on the dancefloor.